Depends on the point, a lvl 60 had a massive mix of stuff that would take him quite a while to get any of the legendaries. Restart was an option for him but he had some really good FO that he could build up instead.

If I knew about arena shards sooner I might have restarted because I'm sitting around rank 500 facing palpatines/ns.

Restarting is most commonly a suggestion for people who have been away from the game for an extended period of time, meaning others in their shard have a big edge over them that's hard to close, even with money.

I am very happy that I restarted. No headaches here. Without the restart I would have gotten a lot less free crystals which translate to more effective shard and gear farming. Had I stayed with my old account, which I started not knowing what I was doing, climbing to top 20/50 would have been a pain.

I wouldn't restart if i would have been a while away from the game and i drop to 1500 in arena. It's so easy to climb the ladder again to top 300 or 200, cause most of the players in Top 1500 are inactive or haven't got a decent arena squad. As @ControlledChaos_3682 already said, don't restart. It's not worth it. Keep in mind how many hours (and maybe money) you spend in your account.

If you are trying to come back and be competitive in any real way without $$, starting over is your "only option" (opinion). The game is based on time, and time=$$. You will be behind in farming and event structure, and be fighting an uphill battle

And yes it is easier to start now than it was when many of us started. Things are well rounded and structured. There are also some really good guides that can help you hit the ground running.

If you, just want to hang out and collect, then sure you can just keep at it but you will be hard pressed to get caught up with committed players.

All depending how long you have been gone and when you left, if you left before you hit 85 and have been gone for 6 months or more, I would always recommend a restart.

Honestly, I don't know why it's such a common response to people who are new to the game and didn't know what they were doing--like all of us weren't there at one point or another--and took a less-than-optimal path. It almost comes across as if we're telling people new to the game, who stumbled or invested in areas they shouldn't have (and that implies that there are any right choices to begin with), that they've essentially wasted their time and will never succeed unless they restart; that kind of thing can just lead to people throwing their hands up in the air and saying, "forget it!"

In the case Wardai mentioned earlier the guy was only level 60, wasn't nearly as behind as suggested--though he needed a lot of work in a lot of areas, he was in the 150's in his arena shard; he could quite easily make gains and pivot to maintain or exceed that--and could be more-or-less caught up (if he didn't go the traditional route and went First Order) within a couple weeks. Level 60 isn't that far into the game, he had time and could very easily have made that account work for him, if only he tried.

In cases where people are coming back after months and years away? It probably is better that they restart, unless they have Legendary characters--or the teams to get them--and their arena shards are dead. A lot has changed in that amount of time, and unless they restart (or have friends and advice in the game) they could become lost and/or overwhelmed.

Honestly, I don't know why it's such a common response to people who are new to the game and didn't know what they were doing--like all of us weren't there at one point or another--and took a less-than-optimal path. It almost comes across as if we're telling people new to the game, who stumbled or invested in areas they shouldn't have (and that implies that there are any right choices to begin with), that they've essentially wasted their time and will never succeed unless they restart; that kind of thing can just lead to people throwing their hands up in the air and saying, "forget it!"

In the case Wardai mentioned earlier the guy was only level 60, wasn't nearly as behind as suggested--though he needed a lot of work in a lot of areas, he was in the 150's in his arena shard; he could quite easily make gains and pivot to maintain or exceed that--and could be more-or-less caught up (if he didn't go the traditional route and went First Order) within a couple weeks. Level 60 isn't that far into the game, he had time and could very easily have made that account work for him, if only he tried.

In cases where people are coming back after months and years away? It probably is better that they restart, unless they have Legendary characters--or the teams to get them--and their arena shards are dead. A lot has changed in that amount of time, and unless they restart (or have friends and advice in the game) they could become lost and/or overwhelmed.

I agree with all of this. I generally wouldn't recommend starting over for players that simply needed a "course" correction. The only time I recommend it is if players have had to take a very long break. My eldest played for about a year, left for 3 months, came back and continued to build his roster and was still able to push into the top 10 in his arena shard (after 3+ months away).

The restart recommendations also assume that everyone wants to be hyper-competitive in arena(s). Yeah it's more free crystals, but not everyone wants to devote the focus and effort to climb (and maintain) that high rank. Some people just want to play the game the way they want, when they want. I'd never recommend restarting to anyone unless they were determined to be a top 5 arena player.

Doing well in arena essentially allows players to farm characters faster. If it doesn’t matter which characters you have, or the characters you want are easier to get, and if you’re more a collector than a competitor, you don’t need to do well in arena. But for those who want the best or most useful characters and for competitive types, arena is going to be the main way to afford faster farming - either that or buying crystals.

So players don’t always need to restart after a break, but the ones who have been gone for a long time and want to get more involved in the game can sometimes benefit from better arena ranking.

Honestly, I don't know why it's such a common response to people who are new to the game and didn't know what they were doing--like all of us weren't there at one point or another--and took a less-than-optimal path. It almost comes across as if we're telling people new to the game, who stumbled or invested in areas they shouldn't have (and that implies that there are any right choices to begin with), that they've essentially wasted their time and will never succeed unless they restart; that kind of thing can just lead to people throwing their hands up in the air and saying, "forget it!"

In the case Wardai mentioned earlier the guy was only level 60, wasn't nearly as behind as suggested--though he needed a lot of work in a lot of areas, he was in the 150's in his arena shard; he could quite easily make gains and pivot to maintain or exceed that--and could be more-or-less caught up (if he didn't go the traditional route and went First Order) within a couple weeks. Level 60 isn't that far into the game, he had time and could very easily have made that account work for him, if only he tried.

In cases where people are coming back after months and years away? It probably is better that they restart, unless they have Legendary characters--or the teams to get them--and their arena shards are dead. A lot has changed in that amount of time, and unless they restart (or have friends and advice in the game) they could become lost and/or overwhelmed.

I agree with all of this. I generally wouldn't recommend starting over for players that simply needed a "course" correction. The only time I recommend it is if players have had to take a very long break. My eldest played for about a year, left for 3 months, came back and continued to build his roster and was still able to push into the top 10 in his arena shard (after 3+ months away).

Agree, dont think i have ever seen someone say you should start over, unless someone says they took a break, and even then it's all in context of when they stopped and how long.

The restart recommendations also assume that everyone wants to be hyper-competitive in arena(s). Yeah it's more free crystals, but not everyone wants to devote the focus and effort to climb (and maintain) that high rank. Some people just want to play the game the way they want, when they want. I'd never recommend restarting to anyone unless they were determined to be a top 5 arena player.

I wouldn't say hyper competitive in arena, if someone just wants to commit to the game but not with $$. A good arena placement can help them become and stay with the game longer as it's the largest sum of free crystals. Sure you will need to be competitive, but it's really about have a good base income to ensure you can thrive and stay flexible.

It's the "easy option" - the that requires more screen taps but that's all.
Really one of the best things you can do is Invest in Futures - and yeah, it's wall-streety. Take a look at an underused, forgotten faction, and go full sail gearing it up. I had lagged back in the arena a few times, I don't spend hardly any $$ so it's fine. But I had my Sith and NS geared back in the day - when Maul had his time in the sun I drove to the top 10. When NS got it's moment, same thing. I did the same with BH, but in terms of Arena, i'm not sure the AI will be able to play the bounty......

Anyways - If you're FTP, or even mostly FTP, and don't want to the rest of your progress, your best bet is really to go beyond the Meta - because you can't really chase what's happening now - you'll just end up with half made bypassed Meta teams - which forever string out your GP without giving you a strong Arena team.

TL:DR; pick an unused team (Jedi might be a good bet next?) and gear up the best toons you can now. Hoping for your time in the sun isn't great - but face it, aspects of this game are, rightfully, P2P. Go beyond the meta, and prepare.

I wouldn't say hyper competitive in arena, if someone just wants to commit to the game but not with $$. A good arena placement can help them become and stay with the game longer as it's the largest sum of free crystals. Sure you will need to be competitive, but it's really about have a good base income to ensure you can thrive and stay flexible.

Depends on which arena I suppose. Squad payout is pretty generous, and even the most dedicated F2P is going to fall behind the P2P eventually. You don't have to be awesome to stay in the crystal payouts.

Fleet is a lot more stingy with crystals, and it requires a lot of focus on fleet to stay in the payouts there.

Depends on which arena I suppose. Squad payout is pretty generous, and even the most dedicated F2P is going to fall behind the P2P eventually.

Honestly? Not really.

Early on, you can whale your way into a ridiculous team that is impossible for an F2P to beat. However, in a mature shard, folks've had time to catch up and you've run out of ways to buy your way ahead.

Fleet is a lot more stingy with crystals, and it requires a lot of focus on fleet to stay in the payouts there.

Counterargument - fleet is much easier to get to the top because a lot of people seem to hate it and the shards are much smaller. You have to farm a lot more too (both ships and pilots, and gear is super important) so people don't want to put the work in.

Fleet is a lot more stingy with crystals, and it requires a lot of focus on fleet to stay in the payouts there.

Counterargument - fleet is much easier to get to the top because a lot of people seem to hate it and the shards are much smaller. You have to farm a lot more too (both ships and pilots, and gear is super important) so people don't want to put the work in.

Maybe, but a shard consists of a scant 2000 people, and you only get crystals in the top 20. There's bound to be at least 20 people besides you with an interest in crystal payouts - meaning you need to devote a lot more time and energy, as you pointed out, keeping up with them. A few ship upgrades or a smart purchase can see the top players pull away pretty quickly. I find myself using all 5 battles daily to maintain my spot in the payouts.

In squad arena I could do my 2 for the dailies, not even winning both, and still maintain crystal income.

I have the same effort/reward ratio but it's top 150 for arena and top 1 for fleet, so 75 crystals vs 400. Shrug.

Oh I agree that the top spot is definitely one to aim for if you're after crystals...it's just going to be a lot of dedication to some units you would probably rather NOT be devoting heavy resources to to get/stay there. Tarkin is currently my strongest toon, by GP, of my entire roster. It works because he's also part of my squad arena, along with TFP (strongest ship) and Vader (who's just awesome). But if you're running FO or NS or Rebels in Arena, are you really going to max out Tarkin/Ackbar/Windu (ugh)?

I've been running Rebels in arena forever (like most of the full year I've played so far) and I accepted a long time ago that I would happily take 150 in arena in exchange for top in fleet. So I've got maxed out toons (FOTP, TFP, Vader, DT, Shore, Thrawn) that will never sniff my arena team.

(Edit: I just recently started using Shore and Thrawn in arena lol, but point still stands).

I just came back from a real long break and even my woefully outdated, no-faction-synergy, no-mod-having arena squad is still top 1000, which gets me enough currency to make a daily arena shipment purchase and have a bit left over. I think I might get a bit of crystal too? I'm not sure. I guess I get the drive to break into a new shard and get "easy" crystals, but I just can't get behind the idea of throwing out what I've already got, which does include some reasonably well equipped characters.

I just came back from a real long break and even my woefully outdated, no-faction-synergy, no-mod-having arena squad is still top 1000, which gets me enough currency to make a daily arena shipment purchase and have a bit left over. I think I might get a bit of crystal too? I'm not sure. I guess I get the drive to break into a new shard and get "easy" crystals, but I just can't get behind the idea of throwing out what I've already got, which does include some reasonably well equipped characters.

i was in pretty much the same boat with my main so I started my alt figuring my main wouldn't ever be fun to play again

well glad I didn't actually abandon it because even though i can't break top 500 in arena for the life of me I still enjoy trying my best to farm characters for the events and see what I can make of the bad situation i put myself in by quiting for 6+ months

If you're under, like, lvl 40, at the bottom of arena, and you didn't get a good toon from your chromium pull, a restart will set you back a couple of weeks but get you much better position. If you barely scratched level 85 then stopped playing for a year, the game has evolved so much that restarting will get you a better position. And if you're hypercompetitive but at the bottom of your arena shard, restarting and following a guide will get you a better position. Many of the people who post here fall in those categories, but I'm definitely not telling my more casual guildies to restart. It doesn't suit their style of play. Context and stuff.